Grim Swordsman
by Ariaz
Summary: Before The Cerina Child. Kirin's job as a guard bores him, but is a new girl at his school the right thing to give him a rush, how will he react when this vixen is a Venomian? R&R I do not own StarfoxSoul Edge Only my characters
1. The Beginning

Grim Swordsman

By

Ariaz

I do not own Starfox at all, so get off my back!

This all began before "The Cerina Child" so enjoy people

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The black skies shined dimly down on the planet of Corneria, the dark embrace of night cradled the city in its silent arms, and among the silent streets walked a young vulpine in a black coat, the front revealing his chest and stomach, two belts crossed each other on his chest, holding the coat firmly to his blue furred form, long blue hair reached down to his back and hovered over his eyes, a blade with a curve that would allow him to rest it on his shoulder, the metal blade was long and curved, the hilt came up in back of the blade, making the weapon only a one sided slasher. The ruby iris's of the vulpine eyed up a building and rain trickled down on him; he sighed and opened the door, walking into a warm home, a leather couch rested against the wall with a long glass table in front of it and on the other side a large screen T.V., the walls were marble colored along with gray rug flooring, a stairway leading up to his room and his parents room, a chimney with a roaring fire, a large kitchen that seemed endless in utensils.

Slowly the vulpine put his paws to his muzzle to echo his voice through the house.

"Mom! Dad! I'm Home!" The vulpine called out, expecting his parents to come down the stairs, but no sound was heard. "Odd...wonder why they didn't come down..."

The vulpine walked up the stairway, his boots clanked loudly on the marble steps as he made his way up to the second floor and walked towards his parents room, he peeked his head in and smiled as he saw his parents sleeping softly in each others arms, his Father and mother, Fox and Krystal Mccloud snored softly on their soft bed and were left in the gentle darkness as the vulpine closed their door.

He turned left and opened his room door, it was a museum, as people would say, of Korn, Godsmack, Rammstein, and Seether posters, he smiled and let his body drop hard on the bed, bouncing softly back onto the cloud-soft mattress, his eyes slowly closed and sent him into slumber, his ears flicking slightly at the sound of pattering rain.

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The vulpine's tail swiped at the air as he slept on his bed, practically naked as his pants almost were off him, his lower body was off the side of the bed and the vulpine tried his best as he slept to drag himself back onto bed, causing his pants to almost part from him, then his door opened and Krystal walked in, gently tapping his shoulder to wake him, the vulpine's eyes slowly opened and eyed her with a tired look.

"Kirin, time to get up, its 6 o' clock, you'll be late for school." Krystal said softly, brushing his hair gently with her fingers, Kirin let out a groan and stood up, he pulled up his pants and his coat, fitting a pair of sandles on his feet, he rested his blade on the top shelf in his room as a display, his feet and legs then dragged him down the steps and towards the kitchen table, as he sat, his upper body flopped onto the table, catching Fox's attention immediately away from the newspaper and cup of coffee.

"Long night eh?" Fox asked, rolling up the newspaper and tapped it against Kirin's head, the young vulpine just swung his arm aimlessly and tried his best to swat it away; he groaned and lifted his head up from the table and wiped the drool from his muzzle.

"Yeah, it seems that more and more venomians manage to get through the atmosphere and onto the ground, just causing me more problems." Kirin groaned and tried his best to keep his tired head up, Fox frowned and pushed over a cup of steaming black coffee, Kirin's left eye that was uncovered from his paw eyed down at it and his free paw reached up and lifts the cup. Quickly, he swallowed the tasteful hazelnut flavor of the coffe and his eyes sprung open with the adrenilene offered from it. "And now I'm ready for anything!"

"Good, then eat and get ready, Pierce will be over shortly to pick you up." Krystal explained and smiled, gently kissing his forehead like any mother would, Kirin just brushed the feeling off his head and smiled, quickly devouring the food that was offered on his plate.

Kirin stood and quickly grabbed his pack, swinging it over his shoulder and hurried out the house, he quietly waited for his fennec friend Pierce Phoenix to arrive at his house and travel to the school; in a burst of wind, the fennec appeared at Kirin's side, his body of piercing rings jingled on his flesh and against each other.

"Morning Kirin, ready to go?" Pierce asked as he readied an orb of wind, the vulpine smiled and nodded, hopping in with his friend and, blurringly, they darted towards the highschool. As they leave the orb of wind, a vixen sat on a wall and watches them, a smile on her face as she looked down at Kirin, she hopped down and walked over to him, Kirin looked over at her and raised a brow as he never saw this vixen before.

"Uh...can I help you?" Kirin asked, looking at the giggling vixen confusingly.

"Maybe, My name's Kelly, what's yours?" The vixen asked through her giggles and smiled with a tilted head.

"Er...Kirin Mccloud...look I have to get to class, so i'll see you later Kelly." Kirin explained as he walked away with Pierce into the highschool.

"Oh we'll be seeing each other soon Mccloud, oh so very soon." Kelly thought and turned, slowly, with no one to witness, vanishing into a dark shade.

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So what do ya think of me new chapter people? please R&R now, I'd like to hear your thoughts. Choi


	2. The Secret

I do not own Starfox 

Don't forget to R&R people, I really could use them.

--

The high school belled roared over the campus as a finished day, Kirin and Pierce leaped out the school doors with a joyful howl of freedom, both darting to his house in the orb of wind made from Pierce's swaying paws. "Thanks Pierce, I'll see ya tomorrow at the field, fireworks are gonna be big as nova's." Kirin explained as he waved goodbye to his fennec friend, the great fennec nodded to his smaller vulpine friend, his body piercing rings jingled against the wind and the force of his nod as he entered the highschool building. Kirin stretched his back, listened to the loud pops from his spine, released a yawn from his muzzle and dragged himself inside, today was going to be the same usual day as any other weekday: Horrible, terrible, insanity, and homework.

Kirin's groans echoed through his house as he dragged himself in by pulling across the ground with his arms, high school today was rough, classes and such, new teachers that were worse then the last, it was agony to his brain to learn new things that he barely understood, but now he was calm and relaxed as he let his body flop onto the couch, a relaxed and satisfied sigh left his muzzle, his fingers resting on the channel button on the remote, flipping through programs on the widescreen T.V. until he could find something mindless on it to watch like cartoons or soap operas. At the door came a knocking, Kirin groaned louder and stood weakly from his couch, trudging towards the door and firmly gripped the knob; the door opened and revealed Kelly on the other side.

"Kelly? What are you doing here?" Kirin asked the smiling vixen , who let herself into his home and sat down on the couch, he groaned louder like a whine, flopped face first into the chair and sat as well, wanting to lie down on his beloved couch.

"Well Kirin, I wanted to know if you, maybe, wanted to go out and do something." Kelly replied, turning her gaze over to Kirin, who was barely awake, but managed to hear her offer.

"Sounds fun…alright I guess I'll go." Kirin replied to her, sitting up and now fully awake, the vixen smiled with joy and gave a little kiss on his cheek, this really put Kirin in an up straight position, he turned a slight red under his eyes and a little smile came across his muzzle, he never felt such embarresment before.

The two left the house after Kirin told his parents of where he was going to go and when he would be back, the two walked away from the house and into the city of corneria, at night is when all of corneria is at its beautiful and spectacular environement with all its lights and sounds, then Kirin and Kelly entered their destination: the movie theatre.

"We'll here's stop one on our little night out." Kelly explained as she bought two tickets for a romance movie, leaving Kirin to buy items on a little list she held: Large popcorn, two Sodas, three boxes of reeses pieces M&M's, five boxes of chocolate nuts, and a hersery bar for Kirin.

The theatre was filled with tears and sobbing of the sad movie, but Kirin had a blank face and his head rested on his paw, his eyes barely making an effort to stay open, bored and wishing he we're dead at that very moment the movie got to a climax, finding even the crying males in their seats pathetic as tears flowed down their muzzles. Finally the movie ended and the theatre emptied itself out; Kirin and Kelly then walked down the streets again and towards the park after buying sandwiches at the local subway, there they sat under a tree and gazed at the stars, the moon shining brightly down upon them.

"It's a beautiful night, eh Kirin?" Kelly asked softly, keeping her gaze up at the star blanketed sky, sliding slightly closer to her friend, the vulpine didn't notice her a bit as he unraveled his sandwhich's wrap, which turned out to be a meatball sub.

"I guess so if you think so, but I don't really find nights romantic…just dark and slight light." Kirin replied, biting into his meatball sub, not a drop of sauce got onto his jacket or his fur, he was a careful eater.

"Really? Well maybe you need to open your mind a little…maybe with some help?" Kelly asked as her side was now at Kirin's, she smiled and wrapped his arm around her side, slowly crawling into his jacket and warming up to him.

"Heh, everyone needs to stay warm I guess." Kirin chuckled as he closed his jacket around her and him, sharing his warmth with her, it was a beautiful night to remember for them.

Kirin stood up as his ears perked up to a sound, he gently wrapped his coat around Kelly and unsheathed his long blade from his back, resting it on his shoulder, his eyes whipped around at the environment; his blade whipped back and slammed a venomian into a tree, whipping again at another and slamming the venomian into a pond.

"Kelly! Go!" Kirin ordered as he leapt forward and slashed the venomian in the tree in half, more of them seemed to have been coming; Kelly stood perfectly still, unafraid of them for some reason, she was calm and relaxed, watching every venomian pass by her and at Kirin.

Kirin swung his blade around and cleared a circle of venomians around him, his blade was splashed in their blood, his breathes that came out in pants were visible in the cold night, Kelly just watched him without even the slightest show of fear. Finally Kirin cleared the venomians away and growled, he stomped towards Kelly and slammed his paws on her shoulders.

"Why didn't you run!" Kirin roared in her face, removing his paws from her torn shirt, then he finally realized who she was and slowly he backed away from her. "You're…venomian?"

"…Yes…I am Kirin, that's why I didn't run." Kelly replied, her head lowered and a soft sniffing sound left her, she was crying.

Kirin, although knowing she was venomian, slowly wrapped his arms around her form and comforted her the best he could, she stopped her crying slowly and purred softly in his arms, her head rested on his chest.

"Kelly…I don't care if your venomian or cornerian…you gave me a good night and that's all I really needed to find my job more lively now." Kirin said as he rubbed her spine, she purred even louder and nuzzled his chest. "Come, I'll take you home."


	3. The Memories

I do not own Starfox Don't forget to R&R 

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Morning slowly arose from beyond the horizon, shining slightly upon Kirin's face, the vulpine grunted loudly and threw the pillow onto his face, blocking the sun away from his face, it was Saturday, he favorite day to sleep in. However, his cell phone in his pocket rang loudly and was grabbed by Kirin who had flinched at the sound.

"Hello?" Kirin asked sleepily, a loud yawn came from his muzzle.

"Kirin, it's about time you got up." An old but commanding voice came from the phone.

"Ugh, Pepper, can't you can it for at least one day? I want sleep!" Kirin barked and groaned, putting a paw to his forehead and fell back on his bed.

"Well I should let you know that your next job is to search for a venomian battle ship that crashed near the forest. The pay, if you find survivors, salvaging, and the ship of course, will be 20,000 credits to your account…hello?" Pepper asked over the phone, then wincing as he heard a loud yelp of joy on the other side.

"Don't you worry your old wrinkled head, general, I'm on it!" Kirin roared with joy and then turned off his phone, quickly whipping on his coat, pants, and sandals, then he grabbed his blade and whipped it into his sheath on his back, a couple daggers on his sides, and a few smoke grenades in his pockets.

Kirin leapt downstairs and rolled along the floor into a perfect front flip, his parents still had been asleep so he quietly walked out, then loudly ran towards his motorcycle, energy roared from the wheels and hovered along the air just about a foot off the ground. He smiled and looked around the morning wake of the city, people were taking morning walks and opening their stores, he smiled and blared the engines, gripping the handles tightly as the motorcycle zoomed over the beach and towards a small island, where the ship had crashed.

"This is awesome, all I gotta do is find some ship, salvage it, find survivors and get outta there." Kirin thought gloriously, he would finally earn an excellent reward of credits, which he would most likely spend it on games or strippers.

Kirin landed on the shore and leapt off his motorcycle, landing softly onto the sand and darted into the forest blanket; roots the size of trucks shadowed over abysses of bogs below the island, losing footing on a root would mean you'd fall for hours and land in water with corpse matter; Kirin leapt from root to root, swinging and hopping from branch to root, memories from when he returned to corneria from sauria had flashed into his head as he continued down this island.

_The small vulpine crawled over silently to a crab, his tail wagging behind him and ready to pounce on his prey, the crab turned to him and flinched as Kirin poked its shell, laughed, then crawled away fast, when he stopped, he let out a loud yelp and cried as he ran with the crab latched to his tail. Two paws came down and picked up the small Kirin and detached the crab from his tail with soft paws, tossing it back into the ocean; Kirin whimpered in pain and snuggled deep into his mother, who softly spoke to him and comforted him._

"_It's alright Kirin, here." Krystal softly spoke and gently rubbed his tail, Kirin's whimper slowly stopped and he rested his head on her arm, she smiled softly at her young kit and gently kissed his forehead._

_It was a sunny Friday, a day where Krystal and Kirin spent time with each other, mother to son, sometimes they would drive to a hill and eat, watching the stars rise and the sun go down, and sometimes they would come to this island and swim; Kirin smiled and stood, wiped the tears from his muzzle and walked with Krystal, paw in paw._

"Ah good times…good times." Kirin thought as he grabbed a root and hung from it, looking around for the crashed ship, he sniffed the air carefully, hoping to get a scent, and finally his luck rose as he caught the scent of oil and fire, both had made a powerful fume and Kirin now had a lead.

The vulpine continued to swing towards his destination, his adrenaline rose greatly, he had almost forgot about his last rush of excitement when he came to corneria; the day he went to the mall's arcade.

_Kirin swung from his parents paws and smiled as they walked, Fox laughed as he whipped his paw up, launching Kirin into the air and onto his shoulder, then gasped for air as Kirin tightly latched to his neck with immediate fear, his face looked like he was filled with terrifying surprise, quickly Krystal detached Kirin from his father's neck and cradled him in her soft arms; she wore a green tank-top and sky blue jeans, Fox wore his normal outfit because he knew the general could call him at anytime at any place; Kirin wore a black tank-top and dark blue jeans with a pair of sandals that matched his mothers._

"_Well Fox, you go look for the parts you need for your blaster, and I'll take Kirin over to the arcade, we'll meet back at the car, ok?" Krystal explained softly, smiling as Fox nodded and smiled, Kirin's brow raised up when he heard the word "arcade", he didn't understand what such a place was, until Krystal took a left turn into a massive room, she giggled as she watched Kirin's eyes widen greatly, his gaze examined the whole place, flashing lights, prizes, game machines and rivers of tickets, he licked his muzzle and leapt down from his mothers arms, wondering where to go first._

"_We'll Kirin, you won't get much done without these." Krystal said as she knelt down and placed a small bag of tokens in his paw, enough to keep him occupied for hours._

_The two together on games, from shooters to racecars, until finally Kirin spotted a stomping game, carefully he read the instructions and looked down at 7 small buttons for his foot to stomp on, minutes had passed by and coin depositing, the young Kirin had all ready earned over 5000 tickets._

"_Ah, a game to express my anger upon." Kirin thought happily as he walked towards the front to spend his well-earned tickets._

_Prizes lined upon the top and bottom of glass cases, the great prizes laid upon the wall on shelves, Kirin was baffled and confused on what to purchase with the 5000 tickets, then finally his eyes stopped and widened on a game system known as a GX40 with 6 control slots, two slots for memory cards and a spin disc system that could had 5 disc changers, and a remote control to change one disc to another. He had to have it; slowly he looked up at the ticket price, knowing that it would be to much for him to buy, but then a gasp left his breath and his eyes filled with joy as he looked at the price: 5000 tickets. He slammed the tickets into the takers paws and tightly held the game system in his arms, he ran to Krystal and held it up to her, a soft "oooo" left her muzzle and a smile came across it as she picked him and the game system into her arms._

Kirin landed on a large root and looked down at the craft, fire bathed the insides and outsides, he knew that there would be no survivors but salvaging might have still been possible. He flipped on his comm link and turned its channel to the base.

"General, I've found the ship and a couple of engine parts, no survivors though, sending coordinates…now." Kirin explained as several beeps of numbers came from the other side.

"Good work Kirin, the reward has been sent to your account." Peppers voice came from the comm link, Kirin flipped the link off and was ready to leave until something caught his eye in the ship.

His brow rose as he leapt down and advanced towards the hatch, ripping it clean off with the strength he contained; Male cerinians had strength that could smash titanium in half like it was a branch, and female cerinians had intelligence beyond any living being; Kirin peeked inside and crouched down to a hard covered book, covered in black leather, gold lining, silver letters, and soft silk pages.

"What's this thing?" Kirin thought as he stared at the book carefully, his ears perked up as he heard arwing engines roar towards the island, he quickly stuffed the book in his coat and swung back to his motorcycle, riding off towards corneria…with a venomian black magic tome.


	4. The Council

Chapter 4

Soon Kirin had made his way back into the comfort of his home and planted himself on the couch, his paws resting upon the rough, torn cover of the spell book, the fact that it was of venomian text didn't bother him, it was what was inside that did; what rested within the book?

"This thing must be very important if it was on a general rank battleship…wonder what's inside." Kirin thought as hisfingers traced along the edge of the coverand slowly opened the book, as he did, a small gust of wind blew across his face, he knew now that this book was of evil, but his curiosity had forced him to delve deeper into this mysterious book.

Slowly his gazed danced along the Venomian runes of the ancient tongue, he raised his paw and pointed it at the dark fireplace, uttering the words "Vakzu" then yelped as a burst of fire jolted from his palm and blasted the wood with a cold blue fire with a scent of crystal roses, like a small oasis scent. Kirin slowly eyed down at the text in the book, spells and hexes all across the pages, but a particular category of black magic seem to have took Kirin's attention full force: Summoning. The young vulpine placed the book aside and knelt on the marble floor and drew a small circle with a celestial design of earth, his fingers tracing along the circle; his muzzle opened and uttered the words "Vokia" and a massive light beamed from the circle, slamming Kirin back against the wall and onto the couch, knocking him out.

Slowly night rose as the sun fell and the sky invited the moon with her starry siblings, gently radiating a soft light down upon Kirin's sleeping face and woke him, his soft ruby eyes widened in surprise as they stared at a small pair of garnet marble eyes of a small stone made dragon kit, it didn't surprise that Kirin could make only a small creature since he spent his life in strength and swordsmanship. His paw gently lifted the small kit into his arms, he smiled as the kit squeaked and curled up into a ball.

"Hey it's ok little guy, you're safe. Hmm…I think…Kaz would be an excellent name to call you." Kirin said as he gently scratched the young kit, chuckling as the kit squeaked again and latched to his cerulean fur.

Kirin smiled and fell back on the couch, pulling up the quilted blanket over him and Kaz, slowly shutting his eyelids and falling into a slumber.

"_What's happening?"_

"_Kirin…"_

"_Who said that!"_

"_Kirin…turn."_

_The dream realm in Kirin's mind seemed to change into a court of some holy environment, the young vulpine shifted his direction towards the voice and stared at a long set of chairs, a council of Soul edge wielders of the past; a tall panther with a long cross shaped scar across his left eye held in his paw a spirit form of a large broad sword soul edge, and a crest on his chest of a mastery over soul manipulation; Kirin knew straight away that this panther was the first descendent of soul edge._

"_Kirin…the time has come once again…you must take up soul edge from your past and use it to destroy…an evil that slowly draws itself…to you." The panther explained, vanishing and reappearing in front of the young vulpine with the soul edge out in material form, Kirin shook slightly and held his head, he could still remember the horrible past, the screams of agony from millions._

"_I…can't. I can't take it back." Kirin announced sadly, his head lowered as gasps were heard all over the council, the panther shook his head and lifted Kirin's head._

"_Kirin…it was not your fault of the fall of Base 220, it was Grey Fang who had forced you while he still inhabited your body. Please Kirin, the evil is drawing closer and closer with every passing hour." The panther explained as he held out soul edge again._

_Kirin's paw slowly closed around the hilt and shouldered the blade._

"_So what is this evil exactly?" Kirin asked with confusion, the soul edge council was worried so much now, Kirin just needed to know why._

"…_it is worse then any venomian threat or any of the kind…the spirits have witnessed an awakening of a demon known as Oka, the great spirit serpent, he is coming to corneria…he is coming for you." The panther said, gripping the spiritual form of soul edge tightly._

"_Heh, it should be easy, after all I got soul edge and its power of Soul drain as well as going into soul mode. I'll kill that serpent without any troubles." Kirin laughed, smiling._

"…_There is a thing about soul mode…in soul mode you are powerful as the meteors…but in that mode, you must not die with soul edge in paw, or the Descendents of soul edge, its cycle…will cease to function and the soul edge will be lost in time." The panther explained and slowly vanished with the rest of the dead descendents._

Kirin's eyes shot open with surprise.

"If I die…then soul edge will be passed onto anyone…if I die in soul mode…then soul edge will be passed onto the next rightful descendent…but if I die in soul mode with soul edge…then…everything will cease…" Kirin thought with worry

End of Part 1


	5. The Pious

Part 2

Inner workings of Venom

"Does he sssssuspect anything, Kelly?" A hissing and dark voice spoke from a crystal sphere, placed in the center of a table deep under the house of the venomian vixen, the young girl sighed softly and looked at the crystal, staring at her master, the great spirit serpent Oka.

"No Oka…The soul edge descendent hasn't a clue of our plan," Kelly replied to the spirit, she felt twisted inside for being a minion of the mighty serpent. "Sir…I don't feel right about this plan of yours…I mean…this is Kirin Mccloud we're speaking of, he slew both Syphon and Grey-fang! Do you really think you can fight him in this current state?"

"I don't plan to destroy him…I plan to bring him over to our side and have him harvest sssssouls for ussss, that way, both an army and soul edge will be at my control! It's the perfect combination of strength in numbers and a dark hero," Oka explained and chuckled loudly, almost rattling the walls of the basement, Kelly's eyes just widened at the newly received details of his twisted tactic. "All you have to do, my sweet daughter, is to feed his soul edge with those venomian soldiers souls to his blade, and do not stop until he has become permanent in the soul mode of soul edge, that way, he will harvest souls of those already undead. Now go!"

And with that said in a boom of a destructive voice, Oka vanished from the crystal on the table, and Kelly left the silent room with a heavy heart of burden and a mind so broken by the tasks given to her.

Kirin looked up at the ceiling and stretched his back, the soul edge laid upon his lap in its weakened form for lacking souls, just in its larvae form, long black steel with red craters, ivy curling around hilt, and no eye to spy upon Kirin's movements and actions, a great relief to its wielder. The ceiling's tiles passed by Kirin's eyes as he watched them vanish in back of him and greeted by new tiles, he let his head down and sighed as he dragged his feet beside his mother, who looked upon shelves of canned food and several boxes of cereal.

"Please mom! Let me stay in the car! I'm just dragging myself along! It's unfair to-" He was immediately hushed by her index and middle finger on his lips, a frown came across Krystal's muzzle as soldiers dragged a venomian prisoner outside towards the center of town, the venom crest sliced into his shoulder but a golden cross dangling from his neck on a silver chain, this prisoner was familiar to both Krystal, Kirin, the whole mccloud family.

Fox held his wound tightly as Krystal held Kirin close to her in fear, a couple thugs had broken into their home and caught them off guard, blasters pointed at Fox's head. Two thugs grinned down at Krystal and kicked Kirin away from her, the small child cried in pain and held his stomach in rough agony as the two caressed her neck.

"Don't worry, we'll just spend a small hour with this beautiful vixen." One of the thugs chuckled as he ran his dagger down her dress, ready to cut it open and reveal her chest, and as he did, the thug grinned at the sight of her chest and squeezed it roughly in his paws, listening to Krystal scream and moan with pain. Then another window broke, a large tiger landed on the ground and looked at them with a glare of justice, the venom crest in plain sight on his muscles on his shoulder.

"Who's this punk? Shoot 'em-" But it was too late for them to react and shoot, the group of thugs were slammed back by a large blunt object substituted as a club across their faces, smashing several jaws and teeth as well as neck bones, blood spewing over the walls and carpeting. The thug that had just began raping the blue vixen cowered in a corner of the room, his muscles tensed as the tiger stood over him, his paws patting the club impatiently and angrily.

"D-d-d-don't kill me! I swear I won't do it again!" The tiger just sighed and slammed his club down with one swift swing, splitting the thugs head clean open, blood exploded onto the wall behind the thug, Kirin sniffled from the pain in his stomach and looked up at the tiger, a cross dangling on a silver chain from his neck; this confused Fox greatly, weren't all venomians faithless scum? Then why was this one faithful towards god with the cross on his necklace?

Police sirens were heard outside, Krystal curled up beside Fox and held Kirin close to her, the door opened quickly and cornerian policemen filled the room, their guns readied in their paws and aimed at the tiger, the only thing that the venomian did was get on his knees and put his paws behind him, waiting to be cuffed. Fox was confused further, wondering why the tiger just got down and gave up instead of making an assasult attempt towards the police.

"Why…did you help us?" Fox asked before they took the tiger away, the answer that he told them stuck to the three forever, now looking at the tiger, not as an enemy, but as a friend and a great ally.

"Because god wanted me to, Fox, because god wanted me to save you, I will not turn away from his request, neither will I turn away from those in need of immediate help."

"Wait, what are you doing?" Krystal called out as she rushed forward to the soldiers and the silent tiger, their attention immediately turned to Krystal and came to a halt.

"This is a venomian prisoner, and if you must know Mrs. Mccloud, we are taking him to center of town, where everyone will witness his punishment all over Corneria." One soldier spoke like an announcement, his grip firm on a bangle on one of the tigers arms.

"…What punishment?" Kirin now spoke up, confused and a little angered. The tiger lifted his head and looked up at Kirin, smiling a bit to see him so grown up.

"Death. He will be torn limb from limb by magnets with special bangles attached to his wrists and ankles." The soldier replied and then looked down at the silent tiger. "Is your "god" going to save you now, Venomian?"

"…You…are a faithless fiend, and yet corneria calls you a soldier and you don't even know the meaning of justice." The tiger spoke softly and weakly. The soldier growled and slammed the bottom of his gun across his face and shoved his badge in his face.

"You see this? This is a badge for "Corneria's finest soldiers"! With this, my words are law to scumbags like you!" The soldier barked at him with anger, slamming the badge across his face and stuffed it in his vest pocket.

"Enough!" Kirin barked at him, ready to unsheathe Soul edge from his back, but slowly relaxed his arm and his tensed muscles softened. "You can't do this. This tiger saved our lives long ago, he doesn't deserve this!"

"Young Mccloud, listen closely, if you are thinking about helping this Venomian, then you will be considered a terrorist to this planet. Do you want General Pepper to know of this?" He asked Kirin questioningly, a growl came from Kirin's muzzle but he knew he was beat, he couldn't save their savior from the past.

"I'm sorry…they have me beaten…" Kirin sighed and lowered his head, but then his head rose as he felt the tiger's tail lift his chin.

"Child…don't shed a tear nor show me sorrow and guilt…God will forgive you as well as my punishment will take me from this world and into the white sanctuary of heaven." The tiger spoke and smiled, his tail moved away from Kirin's chin and his head lowered as the soldiers dragged him away.

"Don't you worry…I'll get help from only people I know who will help a friend of god!" Kirin spoke aloud, knowing that the only people who he could require such help, the ones who brought hope to all of corneria when it was in darkness of the past depressions.

The circle of purity, a group of faith known well from the church, the only ones who could now save the tiger from a horrible fate, the only question in the air remained to Kirin's greatest concerns: Would he make it in time or would he be too late?


	6. The Fallen

Faith is time

The church was quiet, but Kirin's pounding feet were not as he sprinted as fast as he possibly could to the church, time was against him and the tiger that saved his life long ago. Quickly racing through the church doors, Kirin's gaze whipped around the room for the circle of faith, his breaths came in hard panting as he looked for the circle of faith.

"Hello! Is anyone here!" Kirin yelled out into the church, hoping for a voice to come to him, but no such luck occured to him, he had to search deeper into the church if he would want any hope of finding the circle of faith.

Krystal stood within the crowd of cornerians in worry at the central part of the city, the massive crowd gatheredaround a large stage, the tiger stood in silence as his body was bound to a pole for all to witness his death, the punishment had been changed to being shot, the venomian looked out into the crowd, searching for Kirin, but after noticing that only Krystal was the only one there to support him, he sighed heavily and dropped his head as he mentally prayed to god for safe passage into heaven.

"I can't let this happen…but there's nothing I can do." Krystal thought hopelessly as she watched the tiger be prepared for death, there was indeed nothing she could do for her families savior, if she tried to interfere, she would be considered an accomplise of the venomian. "_Oh god, please hurry Kirin, time's almost out!"_

Kirin slowly crouched down to a notice on the desk of the preacher, slowly taking it within his paws and reading down the sentences printed into the white paper, his eyes slowly looking at the words left to right, traveling down more and more. Then the note fell from his paws in shock, his jaw shuddered in surprise, a tear rolled down his face.

"…this…can't be happening…The circle…was killed during an assault…on the church a couple days ago…this…can't be right." Kirin thought and lowered his head, he gripped it within his fingers and let out a sorrowful groan, knowing that he was going to fail to save the one venomian that could have been different from all the rest.

Slowly he got down on his knees and let out a heavy sigh from his muzzle, time was running out too quickly, and he had no other option left but to accept the flow of time, to accept destiny and the fate of the tiger.

"I'm sorry…my friend…I couldn't do anything to save you." Kirin spoke into the air with sorrow, slowly a tear began to build at his eye, but quickly he stopped, remembering the tigers words: Don't shed one tear for me. Then a light struck him from a window, slowly he could see what had happened when the circle of faith was still alive.

_A hymn played over the church interior, a small circle of praying cornerians knelt side by side in a circle, showing their faith towards god as they laid out offerings in the center, Kirin's soul watched all of them, he wondered why he was there and what he was going to witness, he looked at the circle and kept a close eye on them._

_"What's going to happen to these people?" Kirin thought as he sat on air, his eyes fixed in a cycle on the door then onto the circle._

_The doors then blew open and many cloaked figures with blasters fired rapidly, Kirin gasped at such a large group to attack them, the circle of faith did their best to dodge the blasts and quickly retreated into the lower area of the church as they ran downstairs into the cellars, quickly followed by their assassins, a figure slowly walked after them, two long katana's at his side, Kirin kept those two katana's in his mind for future searching, then he quickly followed the event into the cellars._

_"Why are they doing this? What are they hoping to gain from this!" Kirin though with worry, he was becoming desperate to find out why this was all happening._

_The circle of faith was trapped in a corner, some already gunned down, only three had remained now of the circle, then the figure with the two katana's walked out in front of the large assault group, his paws fixed upon his two katana's._

_"Now tell me, if you want to keep your lives, where can we find the soul edge descendent, Kirin Mccloud?" He asked the remaining three coldly, slowly unsheathing the two long katana's._

_"We won't tell you anything about him, we shall gladly give our lives to prevent your twisted prophecy!" The head leader of the circle barked at him, rejoining his companions in the corner._

_"Very well, then defying the great spirit serpent Oka is a great crime towards our religion, you shall be executed!" The figure roared and whipped out the katana's fully._

_Kirin gasped as he watched the remaining circle of faith be executed, he now understood why they were killed, not because the tiger would be killed, but that these strange figures had came for information on Kirin Mccloud, and what was worse: They were associated with Oka, the spirit that the first descendent mentioned to Kirin._

The light then faded off of Kirin and vanished from the window, leaving the kneeling Kirin in shock of the new found information, he now had something to lead towards the reason why Oka was such an important spirit to be messing with.

Krystal slowly cried silently as soldiers began to line up for a rifleman, slowly walking up a couple steps to the stage, the rifleman was slowly fixing up a blaster rifle; Kirin soon joined Krystal's company and watched the inevitable event, the tiger looked at him and slowly opened his muzzle, knowing that everyone hear his words.

"You're the one he wants Kirin, the great spirit serpent doesn't want to kill you…he wants to control you! He's after you and your power over soul edge, as long as your spirit is pure and free, he cannot take one soul from the great spirit plane! Remember my words, young vulpine and remember them well, keep your distance from Oka and stay away from his kin! Remember them well, Kirin Mccloud!" The tiger spoke out to Kirin and then turned to the rifleman with a heavy sigh, he took in a breath and stood up straight, slowly closing his eyes. "…I'm ready…to receive and accept my fate."

And there It happened, right in front of Krystal's and Kirin's eyes, their eyes had fixed on the trigger of the gun as it was pulled, what Kirin tried to prevent but was a couple days to late: A laser shot that shattered the sound around central of corneria and a lifeless friend.


End file.
